Josh Billings once said: "Reason often makes mistakes, but conscience never does".

How to deal with life problems? Maybe the answer lies in the line above.

Life problems may be of various kinds: lack of money, disease, a family loss, a lawsuit, unemployment, broken marriage, loneliness, depression, career problems, difficult children, and so on. Often, the keys to such problems seem to be out of your hands, but actually there is always something you can do about it. You must learn to live with and to restrain the bothering issue, in case you cannot simply get rid of it.

A life problem undoubtedly involves somebody or something hurting you (your enemy), but you may also find others willing to help (your friends). So, whatever your problem is, there are basically two things you always need to focus on: look for your friends and look out for your foes. Learn to recognize, avoid, appease or eliminate opponents, but also don't hesitate to ask for help from allies, both certain and potential ones. And remember that your best friend and your worst enemy can be... yourself!

The best way to deal with a problem is, obviously, by preventing it. Keep away from troubles. Try to set realistic goals, don't take chances, and don't annoy the others. Stay alert, observe, and learn to discriminate friends from enemies.

OK, this may look like a good policy, but it's not quite so. Such conflict-avoiding behavior may risk turning your personality into a dependent kind, losing your self-esteem, and betraying your ideals. Besides, this will not work for long. Dangers may still occur without warning, like "bolts from the blue" that you cannot predict or impede. (And, paradoxically, it is often yourself who actually triggered and attracted them upon you, by your overly submissive attitude!) Now, you can no longer run or hide; turning away again or pretending that nothing happened may even get you into bigger troubles.

Obviously, there are times when you have to actually deal with problems, really find a solution to work your way out, stand face to face and fight the enemy. Nevertheless, fighting means risks: the battle may be long and tough, and you may end up losing it. This could make things even worse than before; you may get badly wounded, imprisoned, or even killed in the combat; innocent people (friends) may also get involved and fall victims to it. Sometimes your losses are so massive that even "winning" becomes meaningless. (For example, the ancient king

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